(#170) CHEZ PANISSE 25th ANNIVERSARY
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Edition of 1136 of which 125 copies are signed 1-125, 26 copies are signed A-Z as artist's proofs; 1 is signed as dedication copies, and three sets are signed as progressives.

August 21, 1996 16-3/4" x 24" 9 colors

Client: Chez Panisse Restaurant, 1517 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley CA 94709. Telephone (510) 548-5525
Dedication copies: Alice Waters
1-125: Galerie Louvre A-Z: Artist's own use Progressives: One set to Alice Waters, two sets to Galerie Louvre.

(National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, "Posters American Style" exhibition and catalog, March, 1998)

What was I doing when I was twenty-five? That was 1970: I'd learned the printing trade, and gotten off the ground as a graphic designer. Alice Waters and I together wrote, illustrated and published a cookbook called "Thirty Recipes Suitable for Framing", which did quite well. Alice and friends opened Chez Panisse in late summer of 1971, for which I designed and printed an elaborate menu that listed a wide variety of desserts, salads, side-dishes and main dishes. But, it is better to do one thing well than many things half-well, and when dinner-time rolled around on August 28, 1971, there was only one thing ready to eat, just like at home. Near as anyone can remember, dinner was:

This one-meal-suits-all set the trend, and my elaborate menu never got used for anything. So many things we do are like that: careful preparation at great pains for things that don't quite come off, or that turn out vastly different from what we had hoped for or expected. Of course, careful planning usually pays, and that's why we do it. But, in this as in all things, we roll the dice and the gods decide what number is going to come up. That's how the game of life is played.